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A Recipe For Murder: The Killing of Shirley Gibbs
The Marine captain vanished without a trace, but her jealous husband left behind a trail that would convict him.
It was 1989, and Shirley Gibbs Russell was on the cusp of an even more promising career in the Marine Corps than she already had.
However, when she disappeared and her husband claimed she had walked away from it all, it would take the trail of breadcrumbs he had left himself to bring him to justice — and make legal history.
A rocky relationship
Shirley Gibbs had met Robert Peter Russell in 1985 after they were both stationed at a Marine Corps base in South Carolina. Both were captains, but it was Shirley whose star burnt more brightly.
She was tipped for promotion all the way up to Major, which was a real feat at the time for a woman, not least a woman of colour. This should have been a period in her life to be able to take real pride in.
Unfortunately, things were not going nearly as well in terms of her relationship. Shirley and Robert had married in 1987 after he had divorced his first wife, but he continued to have affairs with other women and, accounts suggest, to abuse Shirley.
